25 August 2011

Illinois tollways

Tollways are a quick and easy way for the state to separate you from your money. It is a revenue enhancement scheme of epic proportions. When you hear your Illinois politicians whine about "needing" tollways, think of Wisconsin. Wisconsin doesn't have a tollway - not one. Gee how does Wisconsin survive without tollways???

But being a good Democrat, the real reason for the open road tollways was to increase revenue. They knew that once commuters put that I-pass transponder in their car and were allowed to "breeze through" the express lanes, folks wouldn't feel the pain of stopping and paying the toll. Additionally they wouldn't pay attention to the toll rates - they would just continue to fill their I-pass each month. That way the state could incrementally increase toll rates with little or no public outcry.

And what happened to this Green Lane boondoggle touted by Blago?

GREEN LANES:
The Tollway will develop a program to introduce Green Lanes into the heaviest used segments of its existing roadways, a $400 million project which promotes carpooling and public transit and provides a free flow of traffic to reduce excessive acceleration and breaking which cuts emissions. Tolls will be deducted electronically from vehicles, car pool drivers and buses will pay the current I-PASS rate, while single-occupancy vehicles will pay a premium rate to use the free-flow lanes. To encourage environmentally responsible vehicles and congestion reduction, drivers of hybrids, electric or fuel cell vehicles, as well as those with high m.p.g. ratings will have access to the Green for a variable fee.

At a time when jobs are fleeing this state like Japs in a Godzilla movie, this is no time to be jacking up Tollway rates. According to Chicago business, Governor Quinn is looking to DOUBLE tollway rates. The article claims that we have the lowest toll rates in the union, but it doesn't say how many tollbooths we have per mile in relation to other states. When I travel from O'hare southbound on I-294, there are 6 tolls. That's about 15 miles in distance. (Whatever happened to Quinn's "transparency" project? This crap.)

Illinois is a "Toll Trap" state. The system is designed to keep you on the tollway once you enter and not let you off in order to optimize revenues.

It comes down to more government intrusions from this Nanny-State Democrat regime. A tollway user pays twice - the toll, and gas taxes. And you know that these government construction projects cost TWICE what a private contractor would charge because everyone involved wants a piece of the action, and the taxpayer's pockets are thought of as "deep."